The mode of crime report has been the concern of media scholars over the ages. Perspectives on media’s role and treatment of crime reportage vary along the various ethical divides- teleological, deontological, absolutist or relativist alike. In Nigeria, the mass media are often implicated in the allegation of fueling crime wave through glamourizing or failing to step beyond objective / neutral narrative of the notional 5Ws and H of crime reports. This paper examined, through content analysis, the direction and dimension of crime reportage in some selected Nigerian newspapers. With an analysis of 502 stories sampled from 136 editions of The Punch, The Guardian and The Nation newspapers spread across a fourmonth period, the study revealed that while the media created a high level of awareness on crime stories the focus of the stories did not extend beyond the superficial reportage of arrests and arraignments. Readers were denied information on follow-ups and how the reported cases were resolved and sanctions meted on perpetrators. Based on these findings it was recommended that the coverage of crime stories need to stretch beyond objective reportage to a more prescriptive level of advocacy if newspapers are to acquit themselves of the charge of glamourizing crime.

The mode of crime report has been the concern of media scholars over the ages. Perspectives on media’s role and treatment of crime reportage vary along the various ethical divides- teleological, deontological, absolutist or relativist alike. In Nigeria, the mass media are often implicated in the ...